Amanda Walsh Movies
A native of bucolic Rigaud, Quebec, Canadian import actress Amanda Walsh entered show business courtesy of the MTV equivalent MuchMusic, on which she held sway as the network's youngest VJ up through that time. From that post, the photogenic Walsh both interviewed superstars such as Janet Jackson and Lindsay Lohan and performed in her own filmed sketches. By the mid-2000s, Walsh began to branch out into television and feature work, maintaining a particularly high profile as Jenna Halbert on Saturday Night Live progenitor Lorne Michaels's sitcom Sons & Daughters (2006). She moved into film with a small supporting role in D.J. Caruso's smash hit thriller Disturbia (2007), then signed for yet another supporting turn in the fantasy-themed romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opposite Michael Douglas and Jennifer Garner. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
A brilliant hacker inadvertently sets the wheels of World War III into motion after hacking into a restricted online gaming network and learning of a national defense system designed to identify fledgling terrorist cells in this belated sequel to the popular 1982 thriller. There isn't a system on the planet that Will Farmer (Matt Lanter) can't hack into with a little work, so when he manages to breach the security of a restricted online gaming network known as R.I.P.L.E.Y., he's convinced that his skills are still as sharp as ever. But what Matt hasn't realized is that R.I.P.L.E.Y. is actually a highly classified government defense system, and he's just become its next target. Now the system knows his identity, and his entire hometown faces the threat of an automated military response. In order to clear his name, Matt will have to beat the computer at its own game. The game turns deadly, however, when R.I.P.L.E.Y. suddenly raises the stakes, threatening Armageddon in a time when the world is already dangerously unstable. With no time left to lose before the missiles start to fly, Matt must now use his formidable hacking skills to save the world from the government's own hopelessly flawed doomsday device. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Lanter, Amanda Walsh, (more)
Salton Sea director D.J. Caruso travels from the shore to the suburbs for this suspenseful tale of a high-school senior who suspects that his neighbor is a notorious serial killer. Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a high-school senior who has yet to come to terms with the fact that his father is gone, the tragic victim of a fatal accident. As Kale's mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) struggles to pay the bills by picking up extra shifts at work, her son's behavior grows increasingly erratic. When an altercation at school finds Kale placed under court-ordered house arrest, the homebound student teams with newly arrived girl-next-door Ashley (Sarah Roemer) to investigate the suspicious neighbor (David Morse) whom Kale believes to be an elusive and wanted serial killer. Their attentions focused intensely on the man they believe to be a murderous maniac hiding in broad daylight, Kale and Ashley trespass down a dangerous path while attempting to discern whether his suspicions are grounded in fact or just a combination of deep depression and suffocating cabin fever. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, (more)
A teenager with a penchant for tall tales becomes tangled in his own complex web of deceit upon transferring to a new school in this cautionary comedy of little white lies starring Craig Kilborn, Carmen Electra, Teri Polo, and Ryan Pinkston. Sam Leonard (Pinkston) is the new kid at Bridgeport High. A few inches shorter and a little less athletic than his new classmates, Sam is sent knocking on the door of high-school guidance counselor after a particularly embarrassing locker room mishap. Upon determining that the only way to win over his skeptical new classmates is to convince them just how cool he truly is, the scheming student quickly begins to concoct a series of outlandish lies about his background. In Sam's new world, his father is a rock star and his mother a successful avant-garde artist. When Sam wakes up the following morning to discover that his vivid exaggerations have seemingly manifested themselves in reality, his priorities begin to shift as he discovers that there's much more to life than just being popular. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan Pinkston, Kate Mara, (more)
- 2006
Debuting with two back-to-back episodes on March 8, 2006, the half-hour ABC sitcom Sons & Daughters was clearly influenced by Fox's Arrested Development in its depiction of a large, extended, and extremely dysfunctional American family. Series co-creator Fred Goss headed the cast as human-resources rep Cameron Walker, who lived with his second wife, Liz (Gillian Vigman), and their two children, eight-year-old Ezra (Noah Matthews) and four-year-old Marni (Lexi Gold Jourden). The "spoiler" in the Walker household was Henry Walker (Trevor Einhorn), Cameron's profoundly embittered 14-year-old son from his previous marriage to the bipolar Paige (Melinda Allen). Elsewhere, Cameron's sister, Sharon (Alison Quinn), was mired in a sexless marriage with Don Fenton (Jerry Lambert), an auto-parts salesman and frustrated actor. Sharon's stepsister, Jenna (Amanda Walsh), a single mom struggling to make ends meet as a waitress, seemed to have a gift for invariably choosing the proverbial wrong guy. Rounding out this family group were Cameron and Sharon's high-strung and highly judgmental parents, Colleen (Dee Wallace Stone) and Wendal (Max Gail), and their outspokenly anti-Semitic aunt Rae (Lois Hall). To maintain a semblance of spontaneity, each episode was only partially scripted, allowing the actors to ad-lib and improvise within the framework of the story (Fred Goss had previously employed this technique on his Bravo network series Significant Others). Sons & Daughters was executive produced by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Goss, Gillian Vigman, (more)
Three young women decide to deal with a shortage of eligible men by sharing an older man in this independent comedy drama. Glory (Amanda Walsh), Lisa (Holly Lewis), and Keira (Caroline Dhavernas) are three friends who've grown up together in a small town in the Eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick. The three teenagers are stuck in a community with few challenges and fewer prospects; growing marijuana is the leading growth industry, and Keira is the only one who is planning to attend college after their imminent graduation from high school. Most of the boys their age are aimless heshers with little going for them, so Keira and Lisa are quite intrigued when they discover Glory has a secret -- she's been having an affair with Keith (David Boreanaz), a local pot farmer and tough guy who is ruggedly handsome and nearly ten years her senior. Despite Lisa's frequently stated religious convictions and the fact Keira ought to know better, the two girls decide that Glory has too good a boyfriend to keep to herself, and they decide to seduce Keith and share him over the course of the summer. Keith is more than wary of this prospect at first, but Keira and Lisa are not about to take no for an answer, and soon Keith is sexually backed into a corner and dealing with more than more than he knows how to handle. These Girls was screened in competition at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Caroline Dhavernas, Amanda Walsh, (more)
